In March and April, workers at a Tyson pork plant in Logansport, Indiana, filed 11 complaints with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), reporting packed areas with no social distancing, lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), and workers who had tested positive continuing to work.
“There are so many positive Covid-19 cases,” one complaint read. “An employee was tested positive, and there are three people that ride with the employee and are now showing symptoms. The employer refused to tell the employees that the employee was tested positive.” On April 25, the plant shut down temporarily. By that time, close to half of its workforce tested positive.
As situations like this one played out around the country, companies began publicly speaking out about imminent “meat shortages.” Smithfield put out a press release stating that the closure of its Sioux Falls, South Dakota, pork plant would push “our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply.” Tyson ran a full-page ad in national newspapers stating that the company was being “forced to shutter our doors” and, as a result, “there will be limited supply of our products in grocery stores.”
